Immigration

By Lesley Clark, Miami Herald Where asylum seekers live may play a role in whether they are allowed to stay in the United States, a study shows. Immigration judges in Miami are about half as likely on average to grant asylum to refugees as their peers in 14 other U.S. cities, according to a national study that identified ”amazing disparities” in the handling of immigration cases. The study, which analyzed 140,000 decisions by 225 immigration judges and took particular aim at the nation’s busiest courts, found that Miami’s 21 immigration judges on average granted 23 percent of the requests that came before them. The national rate was 40 percent. Haitian asylum seekers — the top nationality by volume in Miami — fared even worse: 15 percent were granted asylum, according to figures provided by one of the study’s authors. Asylum […]

Haitiwebs.com staff Immigration judges in Miami are about half as likely on average to grant asylum to refugees as their peers in 14 other U.S. cities, according to a national study that identified ”amazing disparities” in the handling of immigration cases. The study, which analyzed 140,000 decisions by 225 immigration judges and took particular aim at the nation’s busiest courts, found that Miami’s 21 immigration judges on average granted 23 percent of the requests that came before them. The national rate was 40 percent. Haitian asylum seekers — the top nationality by volume in Miami — fared even worse: 15 percent were granted asylum, according to figures provided by one of the study’s authors. Asylum seekers who live in Central Florida fared better: The immigration court in Orlando granted 49 percent of its applications. The study, posted Thursday on the […]

Friday evening (May 25) at 7:30 PM, there will be a Memorial > Service for the Haitian Refugees who drowned near the Turks and Caicos > Islands. The Memorial will be held at St. Patrick’s Chapel, 492 > Bramhall Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07304. The service will begin with > the Church bells being tolled 82 times to represent the number of > refugees believed to have died. Rev. Petero Sabune, who is the > Protestant chaplain at Sing Sing Prison, will be the preacher. The > Memorial is being co-sponsored by the Haiti Solidarity Network of the > Northeast and the Parish of St. Patrick & Assumption/All Saints. For > more information, please call 201-207-0112.

.S. Representative Alcee L. Hastings Responds to President Bush’s decision to Extend TPS for Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Salvadorans –but NOT Haitians “The continuation of unfair and discriminatory immigration policies toward Haitians has not allowed Haiti to obtain the sense of normalcy that its Central American counterparts are being given the opportunity to achieve.” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE�� ������� ������� ������� Contact: David Goldenberg May 3, 2007���� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� Office: (202) 225-1313 ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� Cell: (202) 731-6839 � Washington, DC – U.S. Representative Alcee L. Hastings (D-Miramar) today wrote to President Bush in response to the President’s decision to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Nicaraguans, Hondurans and Salvadorans but not Haitians currently in the United States.� Representative Hastings is a leader in the fight to end double-standard immigration practices as they […]

U.S. Representative Alcee L. Hastings Calls on President Bush to Provide Haitian Nationals in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE�� ������� ������� Contact: David Goldenberg April 12, 2007� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� Office: (202) 225-1313 ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� ������� Cell: (202) 277-7349 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – U.S. Representative Alcee L. Hastings (D-Miramar) today again called on President Bush to grant Haitian nationals currently in the United States Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in response to almost 200 Haitian migrants who have landed ashore in South Florida in less than two weeks. This is not the first time in the past year that Representative Hastings has made such calls.� In March 2006, Representative Hastings wrote to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urging the Secretary to grant TPS for eighteen months to Haitian nationals […]

By Amy Bracken, The Boston Globe Some believe US policy helped boost crime rate Harry Desiré helped found Alternative Chance, a criminal deportee advocacy organization, after he was deported to Haiti. Desiré spent five years in New York State prisons. (Michelle Karshan for the Boston Globe) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — As the Haitian government struggles to bring security to its chaotic capital, many Haitians say the United States is aggravating the crime problem by quadrupling the number of criminal deportees to their native country. Tensions have risen after a recent wave of kidnappings and high-profile slayings in Port-au-Prince, including the abduction, torture, and killing of a 20-year-old woman studying to be a teacher. It was in the midst of this rash of violent crime that the United States increased the deportation of Haitians, both illegal immigrants and legal-resident criminals who had […]